Mr. Speaker, the 413-kilometre Slave Geological Province Road has a $1 billion price tag. That is $2.4 million per kilometre. For the cost of a quarter kilometre of road, we could have housed 42 of our territory's homeless.
Almost a year ago, the Yellowknife Women's Society began discussions with the City of Yellowknife and the GNWT about reopening the Arnica Inn to provide 42 transitional housing units for the homeless clientele of the Yellowknife Women's Society. The vast majority of these people are Indigenous single men or women displaced from smaller communities across the NWT and Nunavut. Mr. Speaker, this project is a territorial project.
The proposed co-funding agreement was a partnership. It was proposed that CMHC would contribute $2.6 million, the GNWT $660,000, and the Yellowknife Women's Society would run the facility. The need for transitional housing is there. Seventy-five percent of the funding is there. The support to administer this project is there. Mr. Speaker, why are we not there?
In December, the housing Minister acknowledged that we have a housing crisis in the Northwest Territories. The government's newly minted mandate calls for an increase in adequate, affordable, and suitable housing and commits to working with partners to increase funding for housing programs. Despite this, application made by the Yellowknife Women's Society was denied by CMHC. Why? Because the GNWT does not support this project.
To make matters worse, this government failed to communicate with its potential partners. The GNWT has known about this project for almost a year. Every Yellowknife MLA was told of this plan during election. One hundred percent of us were in support of this project. Apparently, the GNWT has failed to support this project. Apparently, the Yellowknife Women's Society was not advised.
Apparently, keeping Members of this House adequately informed was also neglected. Based on the normal 20-year half-life of a building, this project would have provided housing for homeless people at less than $60 a month.
Today, I want answers, Mr. Speaker. How did we get to this point? How did the housing Minister fail to adequately communicate with the Women's Society and Regular MLAs? Most importantly, why has the GNWT chosen not to support this project that would have housed 42 of our homeless for the cost of a quarter kilometre of road?
As the 19th Legislative Assembly, we committed to investing in relationships and better communication. Mr. Speaker, we owe better to each other and to the people we serve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.